Page 96 of Sugar
“It’s always been easier with guys like him. When I don’t care as much, you know? It feels so much safer. But this baby feels like—like a wake-up call, you know? Like life is so much bigger than my fears, and I want to figure out how to let therightpeople in so I can feel safe with them too. I know . . . I know my history with Tobias changes the way you look at me?—”
“No. I’m going to stop you right there,” I rumble, pulling her face up to look at me. My eyes trace the slope of her nose, the curve of her mouth. As if it’s the first time. As if I haven’t already seen every piece of her. “There is nothing you could ever do that would change the way I look at you, sugar.Nothing.” I stretch my thumb across her chin. Press it into her bottom lip. “It drives me fucking crazy to think of someone else touching this mouth. Warming your bed. And when I think of all the ways you’ve been hurt. . .” His voice drops to a dangerous whisper. “I can’t stand it.”
Tears gather in her eyes as she leans into me.
“But none of it could ever change the way I look at you. Ever.”
“I felt her this morning,” she whispers, looking utterly heartbroken. “I felt her move when I woke up. I was on my way to come tell you.”
My heart fists in my throat. “Come here.” I pull her into my chest. Wrap my arms around her and rest my chin against the top of her head. “What can I do, Ava? Tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.”
She lets out a long, tired breath. “I don’t think it’s the worst idea in the world to stay at Olivia’s for a night or two.”
“Ava.”
“I’m not running,” she says quickly. “I promise I’m not running from you. I just . . . I feel too raw and exposed. Like I’m cracked wide open, and all these people know things about me that I wasn’t ready for them to know, and I’ve never been good with vulnerability, and it feels like . . . like alot. And my heart wants to ask you to whisk me back to the cabin and hold me tight until morning, but?—”
I close my eyes and brace for it.
“I just think we need to take a beat. Between Maeve and Tobias, I’m feeling unsteady.” She pulls back to look at me, pressing her lips together before her mouth lifts into a small smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes. “I’m trying to do things differently, Kasey, and part of that means taking the time to process through my feelings before acting out impulsively. Just give me a little time to focus on myself.”
I groan. Pull her back into me. And let her words sink in. “I’ll give you all the time you need,” I concede. “Just know I’m right here when you need me. Always. You hear me?”
Her arms wrap tight around my middle as she presses her face into my chest. “I hear you, Kasey.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
AVA
“Ican’t believe I missed it,” Olivia grumbles after Layla and I spill the beans on everything that happened earlier, tossing a piece of popcorn into her mouth before looking at me with wide eyes. “Not that I think your ex-boyfriend stomping up your husband’s driveway to demand you like a piece of property is entertainment fodder, or anything.”
It’s almost enough to make me laugh. “I get it,” I tell her. “I’d probably feel the same way if roles were reversed. I love a good messy outburst.”
“You should have seen Rhett,” Layla said. “I’ve never seen him so mad, and I’ve seen him get angry plenty.”
Olivia nods. “He can go from zero to death metal pretty fast, but we’ve been working on it, you know? He just gets really protective of his family.”
I can’t help but wonder if I’m part of that designation for him.
“I don’t mean to sound likethatgirl or anything,” Layla continues, “but it was kind of hot seeing our men get all peacocky like that. We did good, girls.”
Olivia sputters out a laugh.
“I just feel so bad,” I admit. “I can’t believe Tobias actually came here.”
“Don’t feel bad,” Layla says, reaching to wrap a slender hand around my forearm. “Trust me, the Bennett brothersliveto come together and fight against a good threat.”
“How long were you with him?” Olivia asks. “Tobias, I mean.”
“About a year and a half,” I say. “We worked together at a law firm in Miami and eventually started seeing each other.”
“Workplace romance, how scandalous.”
I snort. “The only person I scandalized was my damn self.” I came clean to her about my pregnancy during our earlier storytelling.
“Was he always such a turd?” Layla asks, scrunching her nose. “No offense, but he was aragingasshole today. I can’t imagine he’d have the capacity to be a delight.”
“Oh, he has range, trust me.” I sigh. “He knows how to turn it on. How to charm the people around him. And he can be really fun when he wants to be. But I realized somewhere along the way that so much of that side of him is performative—a means to get what he wants. I think his base-level self is the dick version.”
